Queen's Awards for Enterprise for STEM and Porterhouse

International trade honours recognise the two firms' rapid overseas expansion

Pictured: Porterhouse Medical's Brian Parsons (left) and Jon Hallows

Marketing audit firm STEM and med comms agency Porterhouse Medical were among the recipients of a Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade last week.

The UK companies both received the honour in recognition of their respective rapid overseas expansion.

The accolades are awarded by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister, and were publicly announced on Her Majesty's birthday last week.

Set up in 2007 by Rob Wood and David McNaughton, STEM's business spans 35 countries and it works for 18 of the top 20 largest pharmaceutical companies.

Its offering is an 'audit' service that can be applied to a pharmaceutical company's marketing, medical, market access or account management functions.

Within one year of foundation STEM was operating across the five main EU markets, quickly expanding capabilities in Canada and Australia, entering the US within three years, Japan after five years and more recently other large markets such as Russia, Brazil, China and South Korea.

CEO Rob Wood said: “I am honoured and very proud that STEM has won a Queen's Award. It's testament to our teams around the world for their hard work and fantastic dedication to quality customer service.”

Meanwhile for its part Porterhouse Medical experienced a period of rapid overseas sales growth, with revenues rising from £500,000 in 2013 to more than £2m last year.

Established in 2002 by joint managing directors Brian Parsons and Jon Hallows, Porterhouse employs over 40 staff and had an overall turnover of £3.6 million in 2015.

Parsons said, “It's thrilling that all the hard work put in by our staff over the past few years has been recognised in this way.

“We always strive to provide our clients with service levels that go beyond normal expectations. This is why they keep coming back to us and it's also why the growth in overseas trade has been so spectacular.”